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MEMORIES:
Packets of powdered sugar-dust licked from a vanilla-flavored candy stick. What could be more fun than that? The appropriately named Fun Dip packed a punch like no other, pure refined sucrose with a bit of tart flavor that would send your blood sugar levels racing to heights never before achieved. And when the powder was gone, you could begin gnawing on the enclosed edible utensil.
Of course, the powdery delight didn’t always come with its trusty companion, the Lik-A-Stix. Lik-M-Aid, the predecessor to the Fun Dip has been on the market for over half a century. The sugary sweet powder, which is quite similar to what is found inside a Pixy Stix (a fellow Wonka product,) Lik-M-Aid was available in pouches and originally came in lime, cherry, grape and eventually orange. In the early 70s, Lik-M-Aid added the Lik-A-Stix, a flat, white stick, similar in appearance to a piece of rectangular chalk, that was edible and (of course) sweet with a hint of vanilla flavor.
The Lik-A-Stix was engineered for optimal powder delivery. In the days of old, kids would often rip open packets, shot-gunning the contents all at once. Lik-M-Aid fans were easily recognizable from afar, sitting in their sugar-daze surrounded by empty packets like a strung out junkie. Lik-A-Stix promoted a slower intake of the power-packed powder, by encouraging use of the stick. The stick allowed the dip to cling to a wet, usually saliva-coated, stick. Lick the stick - dip it - lick off the sugar – repeat as necessary. When the powder had been used up, you had the option of chomping down on the sucrose utensil or substituting some flavorful powder of your own, perhaps Kool-Aid.
Today, Fun Dip is available in a variety of new flavors, including some that change color, like blue raspberry, which miraculously changes to green apple once wet. And for traditionalists, there are always the originals to fall back on. However one chooses to enjoy them, each packet brings you back to the days when all you needed was a candy stick and a pouch or two of sweet flavored powder to achieve a sugar rush certain to have you bouncing off the walls.
